Guilty Plea in Missouri Mortgage Fraud Case

Leslie Saunders II, 34, Kansas City, Missouri, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering stemming from a $14 million mortgage fraud that had focused on low income borrowers. Saunders had been involved in the same mortgage fraud scheme that triggered a federal indictment against six others in early November, 2007. He had not been identified in the indictment and was charged separately.

According to his plea, Saunders admitted that he conspired with others to get mortgage loans fraudulently by submitting inflated appraisals of the properties and other false information to lenders. Specifically, Saunders participated in a fraud involving a residence in the 12400 block of East 58th Street, Kansas City, Missouri. A loan on the property was gained by using an appraisal that bore the forged signature of a supervisory appraiser, federal officials said.

Saunders caused more than $198,000 from the loan to be transferred to an account belonging to Scott Alexander, a Merriam man indicted Nov. 7. Federal officials also said Saunders stipulated that he participated in illegal acts that led to actual losses of $2.5 million.

Saunders faces as much as 20 years in prison and $500,000 in fines at his sentencing set for February 11, 2008.

Others indicted were Wildor Washington Jr., Leawood, Missouri, Maurice Ragland, Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Victoria Bennett, Leawood, Kara E. Robinson-Franks, Grandview, Missouri, and Terrence Cole, Kansas City, Missouri.

Real Estate Designers offers totally innovative solutions for your software development, Internet programming, real estate web design and hosting needs. Our service includes domain name registration and real estate web design. Real Estate Designers provides the complete solution including design, application development and marketing.

source: mortgagefraudblog.com

Foreclosure Rescue Company Required to Make Disclosures

Highland Financial, a Post Falls, Idaho business that offers mortgage foreclosure rescue services, will change its business and advertising practices. Under the terms of a legal settlement, Highland Financial agrees to comply with the Idaho Consumer Protection Act in its future advertising and promotions.

According to RealtyTrac, an organization that compiles foreclosure statistics, Idaho has experienced a 158% increase in foreclosure filings since October 2006. Due to the mortgage foreclosure crisis, foreclosure rescue businesses, which are a relatively new phenomenon, have multiplied.

Highland Financial advertised that it could help financially distressed consumers end the “stress,” “worries,” and “hassles” of foreclosure, bad credit, and eviction. The Attorney General alleged the company failed to make certain disclosures and may have misrepresented to homeowners that they could help homeowners retain ownership of their homes and improve their credit when that was not the case.

Highland Financial is not a state-registered credit repair business. Therefore, its past offer of free credit repair services allegedly misrepresented the company’s legal authority to provide homeowners with such assistance. “Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Highland Financial may not advertise that it offers debt counseling or credit repair services unless it establishes its qualifications and legal authority to provide those services to consumers,” Attorney General Wasden said.

Highland Financial also must inform consumers in writing of certain important facts before the consumer agrees to transfer ownership of their homes to a third party. Under the settlement, the company must:
· Explain to the homeowner the effect of a due-on-sale clause in an existing mortgage agreement. A due-on-sale clause may require the homeowner to pay off the mortgage when any interest in the property is transferred to another.
· Provide the consumer with his or her home’s current fair market value as determined by a real estate appraiser, the county assessor, or by another method agreed upon by the consumer.
· Disclose the approximate amount of equity that the consumer might lose, which must be calculated by subtracting the value of the home’s existing liens from the home’s fair market value.
· Inform homeowners that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offers information to consumers about how to avoid foreclosure and that HUD maintains a current list of approved housing counseling agencies.

“It is important for consumers who are facing the possibility of losing their homes to work with their lenders to find an alternative to foreclosure,” Attorney General Wasden emphasized. “HUD-approved housing counselors will provide consumers with free information about government and private organizations that offer assistance to financially distressed homeowners.”

Consumers should avoid doing business with individuals or companies that:
· Offer to negotiate with your lender for a fee;
· Discourage you from consulting with your lender or an attorney;
· Promise to pay off your mortgage if you give up your equity;
· Offer to rent the property back to you for more than your monthly mortgage payment; or
· Require you to sign your deed over to someone else. This does not necessarily relieve you from responsibility for the debt. Therefore, if the “buyer” fails to make the mortgage payments, the obligation falls on you.

Under the terms of the settlement, Highland Financial must pay $1,000 in civil penalties and reimburse the Attorney General’s Office $2,000 in attorney fees and costs. Highland Financial did not admit any liability or wrongdoing and cooperated with the Attorney General during his investigation.

Real Estate Designers offers totally innovative solutions for your software development, Internet programming, real estate web design and hosting needs. Our service includes domain name registration and real estate web design. Real Estate Designers provides the complete solution including design, application development and marketing.

source: mortgagefraudblog.com

Ohio Foreclosure Fraud Scheme Charges

The indictment charges that between 2001 and 2005, James A. Warsing, using his company, WJW Enterprises, devised a scheme to defraud various homeowners threatened with foreclosures, by falsely promising he could save the homes from foreclosure. It was further alleged that Warsing fraudulently obtained large sums of monies from homeowners promising to use such monies to settle their accounts with lenders but used the money for other personal and business purposes.

As a further part of the fraud, Warsing used the United States mails to send advertisements for WJW Enterprises to prospective clients and to receive checks from homeowners. It was alleged that Warsing collected over $500,000 from homeowners during the period 2002 through 2004.

The actual sentence in this case, upon conviction, will be determined by the Court under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines which depend upon a number of factors unique to each case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the unique characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it is the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Real Estate Designers offers totally innovative solutions for your software development, Internet programming, real estate web design and hosting needs. Our service includes domain name registration and real estate web design. Real Estate Designers provides the complete solution including design, application development and marketing.

source: mortgagefraudblog.com

Nevada AG Warns of Foreclosure Scams

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Secretary of State Ross Miller are warning all Nevadans to beware of fraudulent foreclosure rescue schemes. Recent reports place Nevada first in the nation for its number of foreclosures. This has led to an increase in the number of foreclosure scams reported to law enforcement authorities.

Some companies which appear to offer foreclosure relief will require consumers to sign contracts which involve turning ownership of a home over to the foreclosure relief company and leasing the home back to the consumer with a buy back option at some future date. Many companies prey on consumers’ fears of losing their homes. Many of these schemes are designed to fail so that consumers will lose their homes to the foreclosure rescue company.

“Unfortunately, home foreclosures are on the rise in Nevada and that has given scam artists fertile ground for cheating those desperate to keep their homes,” said Attorney General Masto. “If you are facing foreclosure, I encourage you to talk with your mortgage lender before accepting help from an outside party.”

An example of one scam known to be operating in Nevada: The perpetrator solicits victims directly through the mail with promises to help a homeowner from foreclosure by saving their credit and negotiating directly with their lender. The perpetrator will offer to buy the house for the total amount owing on the house, plus some small amount of cash. The perpetrator will require the victim to sign a deed, a transfer tax form, and a contract of sale. The deed provides that the seller (the victim) is selling the house to a corporation. The perpetrator pays the cash to the victim and assures him he will take care of paying off any mortgages on the home. After the victim moves out of the house, the perpetrator rents the house, does not pay the mortgages, and the house goes into foreclosure. The perpetrator can continue to collect rent until the foreclosure process is completed. The victim collects none of the rent, and, once foreclosure is completed, the renters are evicted.

“Anyone who has information about a scam with these characteristics should contact the Secretary of State’s office in Las Vegas at (702)
486-2440,” said Secretary of State Miller. “In the current market there are a lot of people who, for various reasons, may want or need to sell their homes. When that need to sell becomes desperation, homeowners become lucrative targets for scammers. If it’s not something that’s within the jurisdiction of my office, we’ll find the appropriate agency to deal with it.”

Masto and Miller encourage homeowners facing foreclosure to become informed of all their options. Consumers must talk to their lenders immediately if they are having problems meeting mortgage payments. Any delay in communicating with your lender will only make the problem worse. Assistance is available from licensed debt credit counselors, government agencies, and legal services. Seek advice from qualified professionals who do not have a personal interest in your decision.

Consumers may contact the Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection about home foreclosure rescue scams at (702) 486-3194 in Las Vegas or (775) 684-1180 in Carson City. A complaint form, as well as other valuable information on consumer protection, is also available on the Attorney General’s website at http://www.ag.state.nv.us.

Real Estate Designers offers totally innovative solutions for your software development, Internet programming, real estate web design and hosting needs. Our service includes domain name registration and real estate web design. Real Estate Designers provides the complete solution including design, application development and marketing.

source: mortgagefraudblog.com

Florida Attorneys Disciplined for Fraud

Michael Allen Bryant, 5300 N.W. 33rd Ave., Suite 217, Fort Lauderdale, was suspended by the Florida Supreme Court for 18 months, effective 30 days from a November 15 court order and ordered to pay restitution of $6,120.92. Bryant, admitted to practice in 1997, committed multiple ethical violations in acting as a closing agent for transactions involving the sale of a client’s home by failing to disburse money in accordance with the closing statement, by failing to apply funds entrusted to him for the purposes for which they were entrusted and by failing to promptly give the client the money he owed her. He also failed to see that a second mortgage was duly recorded and participated as the settlement agent in what amounted to a fraud on his client.

William Garcia, 201 Alhambra Circle, Suite 500, Coral Gables, was permanently disbarred effective 30 days from a November 29 court order. In September 2007, Garcia, who had been admitted to practice in 1990, pleaded guilty to 13 felonies including grand theft, money laundering, obtaining a mortgage by false representation and false reporting by bank officers with the intent to defraud. He received a sentence of 10 years reporting probation. Multiple counts were not prosecuted in a plea arrangement that included Garcia agreeing to both give up his law license in Florida and not to seek one in any state and to be liable for $500,000 in criminal investigation costs.

Alberto Jose Xiques, 1825 Ponce De Leon Blvd., No. 432, Coral Gables, suspended for three years effective immediately, pursuant to a November 1 court order. Xiques, who had been admitted to practice in 1992, wrote a check from his operating fund for $55,136.39 to pay for the mortgage documents and intangible tax on a mortgage and security agreement in the sale of a Miami, Florida property. The check, which was not honored twice for insufficient funds, should have come from Xiques’ trust account. Additionally, on the same day, he wrote a check for $8,112.50 on his operating account to the clerk of the circuit court for state tax/stamps on the deed for the transaction. The tax on the sale of the property should have been $81,000. Civil complaints later dismissed by Gibraltar Private Bank and Trust Co. indicated Xiques did not have sufficient funds in trust accounts to cover obligations in one case and did not timely pay a mortgage and record it in another.

Court orders are not final until time expires to file a rehearing motion and, if filed, determined. The filing of such a motion does not alter the effective date of the discipline.

Real Estate Designers offers totally innovative solutions for your software development, Internet programming, real estate web design and hosting needs. Our service includes domain name registration and real estate web design. Real Estate Designers provides the complete solution including design, application development and marketing.

source: mortgagefraudblog.com